Salam Pax does America

well, possibly maybe.

Vancouver was very good fun, thank you guys. the films looked a bit too rough but the audience was very patient and I had one person walk out saying that this is just propaganda.

next stop is going to be the US of A, I hope. Visa issues to be finalized tomorrow and then I will need guides to show an ignorant Iraqi how democracy works. I want to go to rallies, I want to watch people debate and I want to go shopping in New York.
Ant advice on these things will be aprreciated.

ANNOUNCEMENT

The Mahdi Army film is going to be shown tonight on Newsnight. They changed theri minds again and decided to show it tonight.

he got injured
he is OK.

he was more concerned about his filing deadline than his head imjury when I called him. I wish I was in baghdad to chain him to his bed for a week

and would you keep those fucking bullets awat from my friend for fuck's sake...

now go look at the pictures he filed

Today is my cousin's engagement bash and I am leaving the early next morning to a secret location to edit. we do have a probable transmission date for the first, if all goes as planned it should be on the 16th, so make sure you have beer in your fridge and crunchy munchies.

So see you in a month, I will either be back in Baghdad or blogging from Vancouver.

and I expect loads of presents for my birthday, so check how much money there is in the piggy bank.

Tchuss, ciao and maa salama

it had a small inscription near the base: "we are living the American democracy". I am kind of glad it isn't life-size but it still makes you wince.

-------

since I am not prepared to get myself in pointless discussions and all the headache.....

this post was going to be titled [Why it is great to be living in Baghdad these days]; and that refers to the beautiful fact that with all the mess we are in there are still people here who have chosen to express ideas and views thru art and put those opinions out there for discussion in ways that do not involve throwing explosives at each other. Freedom to express and discuss.

BUT

I decided to have a bit of fun and not put that title just to see what sort of reaction this post will get and I am disappointed to say that it is the same old shit. Those who want to force feed me "democracy" are not prepared to listen to another point of view even when presented to them in such a civilized and non violent way.

So in the words of Snow Patrol "I'll sing it one last time for you / and then we really have to go". I thought democracy was supposed to be about listening to the other point of view and working to find the middle ground. I think the artist's ironic comment is justified since you really are not prepared to hear his voice unless he says something you like. He made his point.

and you seem to have not read your copy of [Democracy for Idiots]

what do the Iraqi Symphony Orchestra, the Basra traditional arts group, galleris on Abu Nawas street and a Tattoo shop have in common?

A second Pax TV film.
getting this stuff lined up was taking too much of my time.

the tattoo place is a fucking disaster, he licks the needle before dipping in it detol or something. The bear paw tattoo I wanted to have on my neck is not going to happen.

leading a conga line to Shia hell

oh dear, oh dear.
I am going to the lowest level in Shia hell followed by the LLama Butchers, they took up the makeover challenge.

going down to Funky Town....again

Went to Sadr City again today, I felt I needed more material and was hoping to see some sort of welcoming festivities.
I don't really like going there very much, it depresses me. It looks bad, it smells bad and there are no happy faces just worried old faces and frowning young ones. and I seem to have slept on the wrong side of the bed; I woke up in a lousy mood.
Les Rythmes Digitales (real audio link) on full blast and a cup of ice cold coffee on the way to Funky Town managed to get me all hyped up again and was itching to jump out of the car with my camera. I don't know why but the caffeine buzz I get out of iced coffee is intense, I feel sparks behind my eyeballs

What I saw there can only be described as a provocation. Sadr City is not just surrounded by American tanks but they seem to have cut it off the rest of the city. I was trying to get to the big square with the huge Sadr portraits but there was no way to get around the Americans. I had to stay in the outer quadrants moving along the inner streets and asking people which way in. We got to a street where it looked OK to film, No American troops in sight and no groups of frowning young Sadr dudes.
These days I move around Baghdad with a guy called Hayder, he is just very good at creating a sort of safe bubble when I am looking thru that camera viewfinder. He has been telling people who ask who I am filming for that I am a cameraman for an Iraqi TV channel called Salam TV and since it doesn't exist nobody knows about it and they can't start throwing stones at me because they have no idea which side I am on. Hayder tells them that the channel is still in test phase.
I told that I will be working my way towards Pax TV.

Anyway...very few shops were open on the street I was filming on, a guy who was just closing told me why. Mahdi Army was on the attack just further down the street. They have had a difficult night here and he showed me where a mortar fell and damaged his shop and by the sound of it they were still at it.
The only two employees of Salam TV said thank you and got our asses quickly out of there. No sexy flak jacket = get out of the way of flying bullets.

Why do I think the American presence today is like poking a stick into a hornets nest? because many of the Mahdi guys will be coming back whipped and feeling they have wasted three weeks and what do they find when they get home? More Americans at their doorsteps. Not just a couple of tanks, but totally surrounding the center of the district. Am I surprised that there was a fire exchange? Not really.

I have decided to stop filming. I need to finish the logs and work on a script.

A joke overheard at the Guardian house in Baghdad:

How many Iraqis benefited from the American occupation?
27, The 25 Governing Council members, Salam and Ghaith.

And this from people who are supposed to like us.

Look it! My “video diaries” get screened at the Vancouver Film Festival.
They use [filmmaker] and my name in the same sentence, teehee. I truly apologize to all fimmakers on their behalf.

Al-Sistani. Does he need a [Queer eye for the straight guy] makeover?

I mean look at the beard! he is trying to throw his weight around these days and he really needs to work on his image. Ungroomed facial hair will not get you very far habibi.

right..
and now for something compeletly different....


You know why it is fun to have a minister in the Iraqi government in your house these days?
You can watch the government go into shock collectively. There is something wickedly funny when your father, sitting in his PJs and sipping on wine, answers your questions with “no comment” and gives you the mask of absolutely no emotions.

People, the Iraqi government has no fucking clue as to what al-Sistani is trying to do. Apparently they have been in touch with him for days now but his [March of millions] initiative has been a total surprise to them and they have no idea what to make of it or how to deal with it. And al-Sistani managed to give them another surprise by asking to allow the masses to go into Najaf.

Al-Sistani decided to do a couple of very un-Sistani moves. The heart surgery must have done something to him. Until now he has managed to float like a deity above the ground and to always seem a bit above those worldly issues. Just above the ground and acting like a peaceful Buddha. He comes back and suddenly the “great miracle of God”, as one wall graffiti declared, touched the ground with his feet and decided to pitch his weight against al-Sadr. I liked the floating Sistani much more than the one we have now. I worry that if al-Sadr plays him like he has been playing the Iraqi government for weeks now al-Sistani will loose a lot; he has been until now the only voice of reason coming from the religious Shia groups. and believe me that is an already very desperate statement from someone who is as godless as I am, it pisses me off that we have to go to men in turbans and bushy beards for hope.

I went out today to the southern exit out of Baghdad, I wanted to see the masses leaving to Najaf but I was late; I only managed to catch the convoys coming all the way from Kirkuk and a couple of smaller convoys. Still, I was full of warm fuzzies. We drove further down the road and I was a minute away from deciding to go the whole way. Just imagine if this was it; the millions following this inspired leader and being able to peacefully solve this problem by simply being there en masse. The first Shia peace sit-in. wouldn’t you want to be there?

Then nasty, cynical me popped up and squished that daydream. To start with al-Sistani invited the masses to join him on his drive up to Najaf from Basra because surrounding himself with as many people as possible is a good way to avoid getting blasted away by whoever doesn’t like to see him back in the field, ditto for asking the masses to wait for him as he enters Najaf. Yup, cynical me can get very nasty.

And the other thing that worries me is the fact that amongst the first to prepare to go along on this march to Najaf were people in Sadr City. Al-Sistani is probably making the same mistake al-Rubai, Iraq’s national security adviser, made when he opened up Najaf and instead of Sadr supporters leaving they flooded in from all corners and resulted in the current crisis in Najaf.

My mother, before going to bed, wagged a finger at the news presenter on TV and announced that all they want is to go in and pray the morning prayers at the Imam’s shrine and leave. If that is so I already regret not going.

In other news:
among the group of thirty journalists arrested by the Iraqi police the day before yesterday was G. they were released hours later but knowing how he feels about confined spaces, I got my first hand experience with claustrophobics when I got stuck for 10 minutes in an elevator with him years ago, I suggest you go and send him some warm fuzzies.

He’s been taking amazing pictures and deserves all the warm fuzzies he can get.

reasons to ride that camel and hightail it out of Najaf

New York Times
[Ayatollah Calls for Rally to End Fighting in Najaf]

Grim rumors began to circulate, most of them suggesting that the end was near. One rumor had it that the militiamen, especially those who had come to fight from outside Najaf, were selling their weapons cheap and skirting out of town.

"I want you to tell me the truth," said Hadir Syed, tugging an ice cart outside the Old City. "There is a rumor that the Mahdi Army gave up."

On my first day in Najaf as we were driving out of the shrine area hoping that we won’t get shot by snipers one of the journalists said “well, I suppose we can say about them what we want now without worrying, they won’t be going anywhere”. The Mahdi Army looked trapped.
That night someone came into the hotel where all the journalists were staying and gave the guys at al-Arabiya a piece of paper. A hand written letter which they taped to a wall and took pictures off. It had Moqtada’s seal on it but not a signature and at the time what it was saying seemed quite improbable, most journalists there ignored it and it was gone the next morning.
If it were true it would have been a call by Moqtada for his militiamen to leave and disband. In Arabic it said “antum fi 7ilin mini” – you are free of your responsibility towards me and cites a line from a talk by Imam Hussein as he announced to his followers that those who wish to leave and not fight “should see the night as their camel” i.e. you are free to leave if you want and use the night for cover.

So if it was feeling abandoned, trapped or insecure I am not surprised that there aren’t many of them left. The people who stayed were getting the shit kicked out of them the last couple of days. and their leaders and spokesmen were being arrested and shown on TV.